Here’s a list of the 5 most common types of anxiety disorder. Doctors tend to use these 5 categories to help them in developing guidelines for treatment. I like the list because it keeps things simple and easy to understand. I found this list from the Body & Health section of Canada.com. The Italicized paragraphs after each anxiety type are my comments.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) affects about 4% of the population every year. GAD is twice as common in women as in men. GAD usually appears in childhood or adolescence. Worries tend to be about normal things (work, money, chores, etc.), but to an exaggerated degree. In It’s called “generalized” because there’s no particular source of fear. The cause isn’t known, but children of people with GAD are more likely to develop anxiety problems.

Although the cause may be unknown, I do believe that if you look at your genetic chemical predisposition and couple that with your life events and circumstances (triggers) you will be able to identify what is causing this sort of anxiety disorder. I suffered from mismanaged GAD most of my childhood and early adult life, it’s not fun!

Panic attacks and panic disorder: Panic attacks are extremely common – 10% to 20% of the population experience a panic attack at some point in their life. People with phobias may have a panic attack if they encounter the object of their fear. Panic disorder is much less common. It’s recognized as recurring feelings of terror and fear, which often come on unpredictably, without any clear trigger. Most panic attacks last a couple of minutes, but can continue for up to 10 minutes. After a while, fear of panicking becomes a sort of phobia in itself, as the person tries to avoid situations that might provoke one. Panic attacks can begin at any age, but most often begin in young adults.

I experienced my first panic attack at the age of 8. I was at home sitting on my parents recliner when my heart started racing and I felt like I was going to lose control, I had difficulty breathing and felt “out of it”. I literally could see my heart pounding out of my chest, it was so scary. I also would experience panic attacks in social settings ( not large groups, but rather smaller more intimate groups of people of say less than 10 people).

Phobic disorders are irrational, intense fears about a particular object or situation. Phobias are common, affecting more than 1 in 10 people. Some phobias begin in childhood, such as fear of animals, the dark, or of strangers, while others usually appear in adulthood, as in phobias of weather, water, heights, flying, or enclosed places. The inconvenience of a specific phobia depends on how likely you are to encounter the object of your fear. The most debilitating types are agoraphobia and social phobia. Agoraphobia (literally, “fear of the marketplace”) is anxiety about being caught in public situations when panic develops. It can develop after an embarrassing public panic attack. Social phobia may be a general shyness or fear of particular situations like public speaking. It tends to be more common in women but more severe in men.

I just finished doing a search for a list of phobias. Wow, there are literally thousands of known phobias that we as humans suffer from. The list is enormous, everything from the fear of bald people, chins, ice, heat, paper and old people. Instead of listing them in one big index, I’ll try and seek out people who suffer from these phobias and interview them and upload them to the site in the form of podcasts and videos. I may even go over the list and see what phobias I may have and tackled them head on. I know one for sure would be to go scuba diving — I have a hard time breathing through a snorkel…instance panic attack of not being able to breath.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is equally common among men and women, and affects about 1.6% of the population every year. These people are bothered by recurring images or ideas that are unpleasant (obsessions), or they develop repetitive habits or rituals (compulsions). The images and ideas may be connected to the repetitive habits. For example, people who fear infection may wash their hands constantly, or those who fear burglars may repeatedly check that the door is locked. Sometimes there’s no connection at all between the thoughts and the rituals.

I’m a perfectionist, but not to the point where it has taken over my life. I’m very methodical and I hate when things are confusing and complicated. I like simple. I guess that is why I admire companies like Apple Inc. They make simple look easy.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and acute stress disorder are the only types of anxiety with a clear cause. Extreme anxiety often appears after a frightening or horrible experience, particularly if injuries or deaths were witnessed. Acute stress disorder comes on quickly after a traumatic event and lasts less than a month. Feelings are often complicated by feelings of guilt, unworthiness, and betrayal in those who have survived a stressful experience but lost loved ones to it. PTSD, a longer-lasting, more severe form of acute stress disorder, is particularly common among war veterans.

I remember going through this type of disorder after my car accident. I was returning home on the highway from a conference in Kingston, Ontario ( about two hours away from my hometown) when I was struck by a tractor-trailer while trying to merge into the lane off the on-ramp. The tractor-trailer tore the whole driver side of the car to shreds and send the car flying, stopping short of hitting a cement wall. Luckily I wasn’t hurt, but I did experience heightened levels of anxiety afterwards. It took me a while before I felt comfortable traveling on the highway beside tractor-trailer, but the fear eventually went away.

Jason Herrington
Hates Being Categorized